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The importance of Aerobic training

Hi everyone. This is a thread I wrote for a taekwondo forum, but its just as applicable to any martial art really. hopefully some people will find it beneficial. We get told over and over again that combat sports are 'Explosive' or 'Anaerobic' and the vast majority of online articles about sports from boxing to wrestling will tell you over and over work your anaerobic system. Do sprints. Taekwondo especially can be seen as a purely anaerobic sport because of the fast explosive movements and the long rest periods between strikes.
What people fail to understand is that the anaerobic and aerobic systems work in tandem and in a continuum. Taekwondo undoubtedly places very high demand on the anaerobic system so anaerobic conditioning through sprints or 'tabbatas' (even though I hate the word) are great. However another way to increase the anaerobic systems it to actually increase your aerobic output.
Firstly, when it has the option your body will use the aerobic system. if your using the anaerobic system it means the aerobic is already working at max. increasing the ability of your aerobic system can take the pressure off of your anaerobic system leaving you fresher.
Secondly, when the lactic (one of the anaerobic energy systems) system is working it creates lactic acid (or what we call lactic acid) and this damages the muscle causing it to stop working as well. this is what makes you tired. However your body has a way of getting rid of this acid through a system called buffering, where mitochondria in the muscle cell breaks down this acid and carries it away in the blood stream, meaning you can work longer. These mitochondria are called 'power plants' because this is were alot of aerobic energy comes from inside muscle cells. unsurprisingly then aerobic work is a great way of increasing the number of mitrochondria.
Lastly, the alactic (the second anaerobic energy system) system . The chemical your body uses for energy is called ATP. both aerobic and lactic systems create this. the alactic system is simply the ATP that is already stored in your muscles as 'backup' incase you need to use them. This runs out very quickly, but is replenished through the blood stream, which once again is helped by aerobic work.

I know there is alot of technical stuff in there, so now im going to give practical examples of how this works and how to improve. One last complicated thing before I start though; thresholds. There are alot of complicated and differently names thresholds like lactic threshold or aerobic threshold. Basically however they mostly mean the same thing. before the threshold you can work for a long time, above it you get tired quickly. This is due to how much the anaerobic system is being relied on.
practically this very complicated thing is actually very simple. When you are moving around the ring you will mostly be using your aerobic system. When you are moving quickly like stepping back to avoid a kick, dodging to the side or attacking you will be using the anaerobic system, because your body will need more energy than just the aerobic system can provide.
By increasing the aerobic systems capability you can take more work off of your anaerobic system leaving you with more energy. More importantly however, between attacks your anaerobic system 'recharges'. This happens by your body buffering lactic acid away, and the blood stream carrying new ATP to the muscles, and as i showed earlier those depend on your aerobic system.
Lastly im going to talk about how to train your aerobic system. There are two parts to the aerobic system. These are central and peripheral, which basically means changes to the heart and changes to the muscles.
Peripheral changes might include mitochondria density for example. These changes are caused by high intensity work, such as sprints. This means that they also improve when you work on your anaerobic system, which is why alot of people that advocate 'tabbatas' say it improves your aerobic system, and they are sort of right.
What it doesnt do however is improve your heart, which is the center. This is improved by doing long slow endurance work. it can be as short as 45 mins at a time to begin with. If you have a heart rate monitor, it should be around 130-150 BPM. if not, so that you dont feel like you are doing much at all. Power walking more than jogging, or light cycling. This is because at this rate your heart pumps the most blood per pump. any faster and it doesnt fill up fully. The reason you want it to fill up is because the adaption you are after is a bigger heart, and you do this by the weight of the blood stretching it. This means you pump more blood per beat, and your heart doesnt need to work so hard. This will help your aerobic conditioning no end, and is also incredibly good for your health in general.
So in summary, doing some light aerobic work several times a week is hugely beneficial both to taekwondo and general health. Whats more, its much easier on your joints than high intensity work, and will also act as active recovery. whats more it can be incredibly enjoyable. be it cycling, hiking, light games of things like babminton or whatever you enjoy it will have huge benifits on your taekwondo preformance

EDIT: also, if your reading this iain, I really enjoyed your podcast on weight training. So few martial artists embrace it, and those that do are often wrong. Its really encouraging to see someone get it bang on right, and more importantly, get that message to a wide audience elloquetly.

Well written, and well informed. Clearly, you have done your homework!

While it is true that aerobic training is healthy and does help recovery, it has also been demonstrated to reduce anarobic performance. Is increased recovery worth the reduction in muscular power? I personally don't think so. Is it worth the health results? I believe it is. The American College of Sports Medicine has long lists of benefits that 30 minutes of aerobic training "most days of the week" brings. These include reduced blood pressure, improved mood, more perceived energy, lower risk of Diabetes Mellitus 2, and other benefits. Since, as Ian says, we're more likely to die of a heart attack than a violent attack, it's probably worth it!

p.s. if you want citations, message me. I don't have the academic resources anymore since graduation, but I'm sure I can put a few scientific articles forward.

Thankyou, I have spent alot of time looking into sports strength and conditioning, hopefully to pursue a career in it. Its true that aerobic and anaerobic adaptions are mutually exclusive after a point, but they also increase eac h others ability before that level. You can also, through trickery and tapering, manage to peak before a fight, meaning you can bring several contradictory qualities past a point where they cannot be susstained in tandem permenantly, but long enough for the competition at hand. It is a very interesting subject though, and there is lots to talk about.

Personally though I think most people's aerobic work is never going to be so high that its going to interfeer with power work, especially if you do some fight prep work building up anaerobic endurance before a fight, and most people seem to neglect aerobic stuff completely, in favor of things that can be done in half an hour instead.

EDIT: also, if your reading this iain, I really enjoyed your podcast on weight training. So few martial artists embrace it, and those that do are often wrong. Its really encouraging to see someone get it bang on right, and more importantly, get that message to a wide audience elloquetly.